In 2021, younger listeners were leading growth in the podcast market. In the UK, 73% of people aged 16-34 were familiar with podcasts compared with 72% of those aged 35-54 and 67% of those aged 55 and above (Infinite Dial, 2021).
We conducted a survey of over 1600 young people aged 11-18 to find out about their listening habits and attitudes to podcasts. We found that:
- 1 in 5 young people said that they listened to podcasts in their free time.
- Of those who listened to podcasts, nearly 3 in 5 (58.7%) said that they listened because they could also carry out other activities, such as homework or exercise, closely followed by 1 in 2 (53.9%) saying that they found the subject interesting.
- 1 in 2 listeners (54.2%) felt that one of the benefits of listening to podcasts was that they got to hear different people’s opinions and ideas.
In addition to helping them engage with subjects, many young people felt that podcasts had wellbeing outcomes, with half of all listeners agreeing that listening made them feel better when they were anxious or sad.
The research also suggests that podcasts could be beneficial in the secondary classroom: 2 in 3 listeners agreed that listening to a podcast made them want to read more about a subject and 2 in 5 (38%) of all young people, including those who did not listen in their free time, agreed that listening to podcasts would help with their learning if they listened in the classroom. However, only 1 in 10 said that they have listened to a podcast in the classroom at present.
Read the full report here.